I'm working on a project in emacs where I'd like to use a keyboard macro that changes slightly with each iteration. When I saw the keyboard macro counter in the manual, that looked like exactly what I needed - but as far as I can tell, that inserts an incrementing number into the current buffer. I want to use an incrementing number as a prefix to another command.
For example, instead of inserting 3 into the buffer on the third execution of the macro, I'd like to be able to execute C-u 3 M-x my-command, followed by C-u 4 M-x my-command on the next iteration.
Is there way to create a keyboard macro that does this? My specific task is "zipping" two blocks of text in the same buffer together, but even if there's an alternative way to do that specific thing, it'd be good to know the answer to the general question.
In response to #phils' comment:
An example of what I'm trying to do would be to turn
<<<<< mine
foo
bar
wimble
gleet
=====
gimble
gyre
wade
foobarbaz
>>>>> r345
into
<<<<< mine
foo
gimble
bar
gyre
wimble
wade
gleet
foobarbaz
=====
>>>>> r345
But again, I'm more interested in "is there a facility for this?" than "how do I solve this specific problem"?
So experimentally (albeit briefly; YMMV), it appears that setting prefix-arg is effective. So you can have a macro like this (which inserts an increasing number of the letter q on each line).
C-x b ;; switch-to-buffer
*counter* ;; self-insert-command * 9
RET ;; indent-new-comment-line
<f3> ;; kmacro-start-macro-or-insert-counter
C-SPC ;; set-mark-command
C-a ;; my-beginning-of-line-or-indentation
C-w ;; kill-region
C-x b ;; switch-to-buffer
RET ;; indent-new-comment-line
M-: ;; eval-expression
(setq ;; self-insert-command * 5
SPC ;; self-insert-command
prefix-arg ;; self-insert-command * 10
SPC ;; self-insert-command
C-y ;; yank
) ;; self-insert-command
RET ;; indent-new-comment-line
q ;; self-insert-command
C-e ;; move-end-of-line
RET ;; indent-new-comment-line
AFAIK, you can only insert the macro counter in a buffer.
When you start to have big macros you are better off writing a function for it.
Related
I have a problem for execute a personal macro in another session in Emacs. I succeeded to create macro and execute then but, after I want to save it for execute them in another time.
For this I write this code in ~/.emacs
(fset 'psTest
(lambda (&optional arg) "Keyboard macro."
(interactive "p")
(kmacro-exec-ring-item (quote ("^X2^X2^X2^X2" 0 "%d")) arg)))
but when I call my macro in another file [ M- x psTest ], Emacs doesn't execute my macro but writes key in my file
^X2^X2^X2^X2
all my commands:
In terminal:
user#PC $ emacs ~/.emacs
In emacs:
C-x (
C-x 2
C-x )
C-x C-k n psTest
M-x insert-kbd-macro [ENTER] psTest [ENTER]
C-x C-c
In terminal:
user#PC $ cat ~/.emacs :
(fset 'psTest
(lambda (&optional arg) "Keyboard macro." (interactive "p") (kmacro-exec-ring-item (quote ("^X2" 0 "%d")) arg)))
user#PC $ emacs ~/test
In emacs:
M- psTest
Now my macro [M- psTest] write ^X2 in my file instead of execute [^X2] which split the screen.
Where is my error?
Thanks
The problem lies in the sequence "^X2" in your macro definition. It contains two characters ^ and X rather than the single character 0x18 in the charset ascii (ASCII (ISO646 IRV)) which is used by emacs to refer to C-x but is displayed the same, though probably in a different color. If you replace the former two-letter-sequence with the latter character and evaluate the definition again, it should work.
You can insert the character with
C-x8RET #x18 RET.
PS: To display information about a specific character at point you can use
M-x desribe-char or what-cursor-position, which is bound to C-x = by default.
I agree with Simon Fromme.
To insert the C-x character, you may omit the #x prefix from his answer and type:
C-x8RET18RET
But you may also simply type C-qC-x in case you don't know the hexadecimal value of the ascii code of this or any other character!
Nevertheless, in your case, I would rather search for the function associated to the C-x 2 sequence. You'll easily find it is split-window-below using either:
C-h k C-x 2 RET
or M-x edit-last-kbd-macro RET
Then you can write some code easier to copy/paste/save like:
(fset 'psTest #'split-window-below)
or
(defun psTest ()
(interactive)
(split-window-below))
This might be a good way to start learning emacs-lisp!
Search-forward seems to not work well inside emacs macros. For example, say I want to use a macro to help replace FOO with BAR in the following string:
aoeuFOOsnutehaFOOsanotehuFOO
I might begin recording a macro, search-forward for FOO, and then hit backspace a few times and type BAR. Then I can replay this macro to replace the rest of the occurrences. Pretty simple.
Suppose I hit the wrong key and search-forward for FOOO. I hit Backspace to remove the extra O, and finish recording the macro. But when I replay it, nothing happens. FOOO is not in the document, so the macro replay is immediately aborted when the search fails.
This gets annoying in longer macros. As it is, whenever I record a macro, I have to make sure I type in the search text for my search-forwards perfectly. If I make even one mistake, I have to cancel recording my macro and start over; otherwise, the macro will just abort when I replay it.
To sum up, if you use search-forward and commit a typo while recording a macro, the macro will not replay properly because it will abort as soon as it replays your typo.
Any workarounds or solutions to this problem?
You don't have to abort the macro: The easiest thing to do is to simply finish recording the macro (typos and all) and then edit it via C-x C-k C-e (kmacro-edit-macro-repeat) to remove the typo(s).
For instance, when you call this command after defining a macro that is supposed to simply search for occurrences of foo in the current buffer but contains a typo in the search (you typed fooo instead of foo before fixing the typo), the buffer for editing it would look like this:
C-s ;; isearch-forward
f ;; self-insert-command
ooo ;; self-insert-command * 3
DEL ;; delete-backward-char
RET ;; newline
To fix the macro, delete one of the os from the third line and remove the fourth line:
C-s ;; isearch-forward
f ;; self-insert-command
oo ;; self-insert-command * 2
RET ;; newline
Note that you don't have to change self-insert-command * 3 to self-insert-command * 2, I just did that to avoid confusion.
When you're done, hit C-c C-c to recompile the macro and close the *Edit macro* buffer.
The documentation of the ding function says (emphasis mine):
(ding &optional ARG)
Beep, or flash the screen.
Also, unless an argument is given, terminate any keyboard macro currently executing.
Digging into the source we can see that all isearch-* functions that call ding do so without passing a non-nil ARG. You could redefine these functions to change the way they call ding (not sure if it would be good idea to remove the calls to ding entirely), but there is an easier way to achieve what you want:
You can make sure ding is always called with a non-nil ARG by advising it as follows:
(defadvice ding (before be-nice activate compile)
(ad-set-arg 0 t))
As documented here, the ad-set-arg macro
sets the value of the actual argument at position to value.
So what the advice does is tell Emacs to set ARG to t before running the body of the original ding function, causing ding to be nice and not terminate keyboard macros anymore.
With the advice in place, you can now transform
aoeuFOOsnutehaFOOsanotehuFOO
into
aoeuBARsnutehaBARsanotehuBAR
with a "faulty" macro that contains a corrected typo:
C-s ;; isearch-forward
F ;; self-insert-command
OOO ;; self-insert-command * 3
DEL ;; delete-backward-char
RET ;; newline
3*DEL ;; delete-backward-char
BAR ;; self-insert-command * 3
EDIT
As #phils mentions in the comments below, allowing macro execution to continue regardless of errors can lead to unwanted consequences, so use this solution with care. If you want to be able to quickly enable or disable the advice so that you can use it selectively (i.e., in situations where you are sure it won't mess things up), define it like this:
(defadvice ding (before be-nice) ; advice not activated by default
(ad-set-arg 0 t))
and add a command for turning it on and off to your .emacs:
(defun toggle-ding-advice ()
(interactive)
(if (ad-is-active 'ding)
(ad-disable-advice 'ding 'before 'be-nice)
(ad-enable-advice 'ding 'before 'be-nice))
(ad-activate 'ding))
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c a") 'toggle-ding-advice)
You can then toggle the advice by simply pressing C-c a.
I'm just starting to learn emacs (woohoo!) and I've been mucking around in my .emacs quite happily. Unfortunately, I don't know Lisp yet, so I'm having issues with the basics.
I've already remapped a few keys until I fix my muscle memory:
(global-set-key (kbd "<f9>") 'recompile)
That's fine. But how can I tell a key to 'simulate pressing several keys'? For instance, I don't know, make <f1> do the same as C-u 2 C-x } (widen buffer by two chars).
One way is to look up that C-x } calls shrink-window-horizontally, and do some sort of lambda thing. This is of course the neat and elegant way (how do you do this?). But surely there's a way to define <f1> to send the keystrokes C-u 2 C-x }?
Sure there is, and it's the obvious way:
(global-set-key (kbd "<f1>") (kbd "C-u 2 C-x }"))
For anything long-term, I would recommend the approach shown by seh, as that will naturally be more robust in most situations. It requires a little more work and know-how, of course, but it's all worthwhile :)
angus' approach is like a cut-down version of the keyboard macros feature that gives Emacs its name (and slightly simpler to use than macros for the example in question). You should definitely be aware of macros, however -- they can be exceedingly useful, and for anything more complicated it quickly becomes far easier to record one dynamically than to write out all the individual keys manually.
Here's the summary I wrote myself of the most important bits:
;;;; * Keyboard macros
;; C-x ( or F3 Begin recording.
;; F3 Insert counter (if recording has already commenced).
;; C-u <n> C-x ( or F3 Begin recording with an initial counter value <n>.
;; C-x ) or F4 End recording.
;; C-u <n> C-x ) or F4 End recording, then execute the macro <n>-1 times.
;; C-x e or F4 Execute the last recorded keyboard macro.
;; e or F4 Additional e or F4 presses repeat the macro.
;; C-u <n> C-x e or F4 Execute the last recorded keyboard macro <n> times.
;; C-x C-k r Apply the last macro to each line of the region.
;; C-x C-k e Edit a keyboard macro (RET for most recent).
;; C-x C-k b Set a key-binding.
;;
;; If you find yourself using lots of macros, you can even name them
;; for later use, and save them to your init file.
;; M-x name-last-kbd-macro RET (name) RET
;; M-x insert-kbd-macro RET (name) RET
;;
;; For more documentation:
;; C-h k C-x (
;; M-: (info "(emacs) Keyboard Macros") RET
If we play with the example from the question, you'll see how some of these things tie together...
To begin with, you can define the macro with F3C-u2C-x}F4
You could then bind it temporarily to F1 with C-xC-kbF1 (actually that's not true if F1 is currently a prefix key for an existing keymap, as typing it interactively will simply prompt for the remainder. You can circumvent this in code with (global-set-key (kbd "<f1>") ...), but I would suggest sticking to the reserved bindings).
If you then use describe-key (C-hk) to examine what is bound to that key, Emacs will show you a (lambda) expression which you could copy to your init file if you so wished.
Alternatively, you could name the macro and ask Emacs to insert the code into the current buffer:
M-x name-last-kbd-macro RET (name) RET
M-x insert-kbd-macro RETRET
This code will look different to the lambda expression shown by describe-key, but if you evaluate the inserted macro, you'll see the equivalence. You can likewise show that the (kbd "...") expression also evaluates to the same value, and therefore these are all just alternative ways of doing the same thing.
(You can use the *scratch* buffer to evaluate the code by moving point after the end of the expression, and either typing C-xC-e to show the value in the minibuffer, or C-j to insert the value into the buffer).
Note that the 'inserted' code uses fset to assign the macro to a symbol. You could bind the macro to a key either by executing the (fset) and then assigning that symbol to a key with (global-set-key), or you could ignore the (fset) and simply assign the macro value directly. This, of course, is directly equivalent to angus' answer.
Edit: I've just noticed that there's a kmacro-name-last-macro function bound to C-xC-kn which is nearly identical in form to name-last-kbd-macro, but which generates the lambda expression form seen when using kmacro-bind-to-key (C-xC-kb) and describe-key.
I'll use shrink-window-horizontally as the example function, but you can generalize the idea to any bindings you'd like to define.
If you want to use two as the default amount to shrink the window, rather than one, try the following:
(global-set-key [f9]
(lambda (&optional n)
(interactive "P")
(shrink-window-horizontally (or n 2))))
That binds the F9 key to an interactive function accepting a prefix argument. If you just press F9, you'll pass no argument, which summons the default value of 2, as the parameter n will receive nil as an argument. However, if you press, say, C-u 10 F9, you'll pass ten as the argument for n. This allows you to use your binding more flexibly.
general-simulate-key from general.el works better (in my case a sequence with popups and changing keymaps that I couldn't get to work with macros): https://github.com/noctuid/general.el#simulating-keypresses
Is there a way to convert an emacs macro into elisp, not like what M-x insert-kbd-macro does, the actual activity becoming elisp statements.
Thanks for your help.
Nope, sorry. There is no trivial way to convert an emacs macro into elisp.
Update: There's been some work on Emacs to start down this path. See this thread as a starting point. It's still not possible (June 2010), but there's activity.
The first reason I can think of is dealing with interactive commands and translating keystrokes into proper arguments for functions.
Think of the following sequence:
C-x b .em TAB RET
This begins the command to switch to a buffer, types three characters, uses TAB completion to complete it and RET to accept. The equivalent lisp for the end result (in an emacs session where the TAB completion is unique) is:
(switch-to-buffer ".emacs")
Thinking of completion, there are also interactions with expansion of all types (dabbrev, hippie-expand, etc.).
A starting point can be M-x edit-last-kbd-macro which (in my case) shows this:
;; Keyboard Macro Editor. Press C-c C-c to finish; press C-x k RET to cancel.
;; Original keys: C-x b .em <tab> RET
Command: last-kbd-macro
Key: none
Macro:
C-x b ;; switch-to-buffer
.em ;; self-insert-command * 3
<tab> ;; pabbrev-expand-maybe
RET ;; newline-and-indent
Which at least gives you some of the function names. But you'll see that RET is labeled as 'newline-and-indent which is incorrect because at the time of the macro execution, the minibuffer is active and the binding is in fact 'minibuffer-complete-and-exit. Similarly, the proper binding for TAB is 'minibuffer-complete.
I made a package that allows pretty much exactly this at https://github.com/Silex/elmacro
It has some quirks but it works pretty well... for example, the following macro:
F3 C-e M-b M-u C-a C-n F4
Generates the following elisp:
(defun upcase-last-word ()
"Change me!"
(interactive)
(move-end-of-line 1)
(backward-word 1)
(upcase-word 1)
(move-beginning-of-line 1)
(next-line 1 1))
How can I copy a line 10 times easily in Emacs? I can't find a copy-line shortcut or function. I can use C-aC-spcC-eM-w to laboriously copy the line but how can I then paste it more than once?
Any ideas before I go and write my own functions.
you can use a keyboard macro for that:-
C-a C-k C-x ( C-y C-j C-x ) C-u 9 C-x e
Explanation:-
C-a : Go to start of line
C-k : Kill line
C-x ( : Start recording keyboard macro
C-y : Yank killed line
C-j : Move to next line
C-x ) : Stop recording keyboard macro
C-u 9 : Repeat 9 times
C-x e : Execute keyboard macro
Copying:
If you frequently work with lines, you might want to make copy (kill-ring-save) and cut (kill-region) work on lines when no region is selected:
(defadvice kill-ring-save (before slickcopy activate compile)
"When called interactively with no active region, copy a single line instead."
(interactive
(if mark-active (list (region-beginning) (region-end))
(list (line-beginning-position)
(line-beginning-position 2)))))
(defadvice kill-region (before slickcut activate compile)
"When called interactively with no active region, kill a single line instead."
(interactive
(if mark-active (list (region-beginning) (region-end))
(list (line-beginning-position)
(line-beginning-position 2)))))
Then you can copy the line with just M-w.
Pasting:
Often a prefix argument just performs an action multiple times, so you'd expect C-u 10 C-y to work, but in this case C-y uses its argument to mean which element of the kill-ring to "yank" (paste). The only solution I can think of is what kronoz says: record a macro with C-x ( C-y C-x ) and then let the argument of C-u go to kmacro-end-and-call-macro instead (that's C-u 9 C-x e or even just C-9 C-x e or M-9 C-x e).
Another way:
You can also just stay in M-x viper-mode and use yy10p :)
You may know this, but for many commands a "C-u 10" prefix will do the trick. Unfortunately for the C-y yank command, "C-u" is redefined to mean "go back that many items in the kill ring, and yank that item".
I thought you might be able to use the copy-to-register and insert-register commands with the C-u prefix command, but apparently that doesn't work either.
Also C-x z, "repeat last command" seems to be immune to C-u.
Another thought would be to use M-: to get an Eval prompt and type in a bit of elisp. I thought something like (dotimes '10 'yank) might do it, but it doesn't seem to.
So it looks like using C-u on a macro may indeed be the best you can do short of writing your own little function.
Had I a vote, I'd vote for kronoz answer.
You don't need both C-x ) and C-x e in this example.
You can just give the repeat argument straight to C-x ). This stops recording and repeats the macro, in one step. Or you can skip C-x ) and go straight to C-x e, since C-x e will end the recording before doing the repeats.
Which way to choose depends on how you like your repeat count to work. For C-x ) you say how many repeats you wanted in total (so 10 in this case). For C-x e you need to say how many more repeats are left (i.e. 9).
C-a C-k C-k will also kill the trailing newline, so you don't have to put it back yourself later. It's quicker than using the mark, and doesn't need you to change any variables.
Even better (unless you're in a terminal), you can use C-S-Backspace* to kill the entire line, regardless of where you are in it.
[* If you're using X windows, make sure to type shift (not alt) or you may terminate your session!]
Speaking of terminals, M-9 is a nice alternative if you find you can't type C-9.
In Emacs 22 and higher, by default F3 starts a macro and F4 end/repeats a macro. You just hit F3 to start recording, hit F4 when you're done, and hit F4 again to repeat the macro. (F4 also takes an argument.)
Putting this all together, to get 10 copies of the current line:
C-S-Backspace : kill this line
F3 : start macro
C-y : yank the line
C-1 C-0 F4 : make that 10 yanks
Not quite as short as y y 10 p, but pretty close. :)
Here's a function I took from an OS/2 port of Emacs. (Yes, I've been using Emacs for a while.)
;; Author: Eberhard Mattes <mattes#azu.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de>
(defun emx-dup-line (arg)
"Duplicate current line.
Set mark to the beginning of the new line.
With argument, do this that many times."
(interactive "*p")
(setq last-command 'identity) ; Don't append to kill ring
(let ((s (point)))
(beginning-of-line)
(let ((b (point)))
(forward-line)
(if (not (eq (preceding-char) ?\n)) (insert ?\n))
(copy-region-as-kill b (point))
(while (> arg 0)
(yank)
(setq arg (1- arg)))
(goto-char s))))
I have that bound to F9 d:
(global-set-key [f9 ?d] 'emx-dup-line)
Then I'd use C-u 10 F9 d to duplicate a line 10 times.
The only way I know to repeat arbitrary commands is to use the "repeat by argument" feature of keyboard macros.
C-a C-space down M-w C-x ( C-y C-x ) C-9 C-x e
C-a : Go to start of line
C-space : Set mark
down : Go to start of following line
M-w : Copy region
C-x ( : Start keyboard macro
C-y : Yank copied line
C-x ) : End keyboard macro
C-9 C-x e : Execute keyboard macro nine times.
That's kind of weak compared to vim. But only because vim is amazingly efficient at this sort of thing.
If you are really pining for modal vi-like interaction, you could use one of the vi emulation modes, such as viper-mode. Check in the section "Emulation" of online emacs manual.
You will want to kill the line: C-a C-k, and then C-y or ?
I don't know of a direct equivalent (C-y 10 times is the best I know), but you may be interested in Viper, which is a vi emulation package for emacs. It's part of the standard emacs distribution.
Based on Baxissimo's answer I defuned this:
(defun yank-n-times (arg)
"yank prefix-arg number of times. Not safe in any way."
(interactive "*p")
(dotimes 'arg (yank)))
Set that to some key, call it with a prefix argument, and off you go.
edit (also modified the interactive call above to be less lousy)
Or, here's a version that can sort of replace yank-pop:
(defun yank-n-times (&optional arg)
"yank prefix-arg number of times. Call yank-pop if last command was yank."
(interactive "*p")
(if (or (string= last-command "yank")
(string= last-command "yank-pop"))
(yank-pop arg)
(if (> arg 1)
(dotimes 'arg (yank))
(message "Previous arg was not a yank, and called without a prefix."))))
the message is kind of a lie, but you shouldn't call it without a prefix of greater than 1 anyway, so.
Not sure if it's a good idea, but I replaced M-y with this, I'll see how that goes.
First you need this key binding in your .emacs:
;; yank n times
(global-set-key "\C-y" (lambda (n) (interactive "*p") (dotimes (i n) (clipboard-yank))))
Then you can do:
C-a C-SPC C-n M-w C-u 10 C-y
C-a C-SPC C-n M-w - select whole line
C-u 10 C-y - repeat "clipboard-yank" 10 times
You get the line with C-k, you make the next command happen ten times with C-u 10, then you paste the line with C-y. Pretty simple.
If you always want C-k to do the whole line, you can set kill-whole-line to t. No more fiddling with C-a or C-e.
There's a lot you can do with fancy kill rings, registers, and macros, and I encourage you to learn them, but yanking a line ten times doesn't have to be tough or strange.